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<P>Along with the announcement of Durant's biodiesel plant, the below developments forward our alternatives to traditional energy sources.</P>
<P>Seneca Scott <BR></P>
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<P><FONT size=6><STRONG><SPAN class=twstorytextheadline>Going smokeless </SPAN><BR></STRONG></FONT><SPAN class=twstorysynop><FONT size=1>By RUSSELL RAY World Staff Writer </SPAN><BR><SPAN class=twstorysynop>8/24/2005 </SPAN><BR><BR></FONT><A href="javascript:ol('http://www.tulsaworld.com/TWPDFs/2005/Final/W_082405_E_1.PDF');"><FONT color=#435059><SPAN class=twstorysynop><FONT size=1>View in Print (PDF) Format</FONT></SPAN> </FONT></A><BR><SPAN class=twstorytext><BR></P>
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<H3>City to test cleaner-burning diesel on bus </H3>
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<P>The next time a Tulsa city bus passes by, look for the puffs of black smoke jetting out of the tailpipe. </P>
<P>There may not be any. </P>
<P>Over the next year, one of the city's 56 large buses will be running on a special type of diesel fuel that burns much cleaner than conventional diesel. The fuel is special because it's made from natural gas, not oil. </P>
<P>Made by Tulsa-based Syntroleum Corp., the fuel is being billed as a great way to improve air quality and reduce U.S. dependence on for eign oil. </P>
<P>"This is the future," said U.S. Rep. John Sullivan, R-Okla. "We need to embrace it with all we've got." </P>
<P>The biodegradable, nontoxic liquid fuel is as clear as tap water and is being tested in Tulsa and Alabama under a program funded by the Department of Transportation. Syntroleum kicked off the program Tuesday morning with an announcement at River Parks near 21st Street and Riverside Drive. </P>
<P>Syntroleum, which has a patented process for converting natural gas into liquid fuel, hopes to demonstrate the fuel's ability to lower emissions and improve efficiency. </P>
<P>"It's very compatible with existing infrastructure," said Syntroleum Chairman Kenneth Agee. "We didn't have to modify the bus in any way to run this fuel." </P>
<P>About 18,000 gallons of Syntroleum's synthetic diesel -- enough to fuel a single bus for about a year -- will be provided to the Metropolitan Tulsa Transit Authority at no cost. </P>
<P>"It's going to save us about $20,000 in fuel," said Tulsa Transit General Manager Bill Cartwright. </P>
<P>The fuel was produced at Syntroleum's gas-to-liquids pilot plant at the Tulsa Port of Catoosa. </P>
<P>"We've already tested the fuel in one of our transit buses and the performance was excellent," Cartwright said. </P>
<P>On the back of the bus that will run on the cleaner-burning diesel, there is an arrow pointing to the tailpipe. </P>
<P>"We want you to notice that when you burn this fuel, there's no black smoke coming out of the tailpipe," Agee said. "We're very proud of that." </P>
<P>Because of record high oil prices, the special diesel fuel could be sold at the pump at competitive prices, Agee said. The higher oil prices rise, the more attractive the Syntroleum process becomes. </P>
<P>The problem is there are no commercial-grade plants to produce the fuel. In addition, the process requires low-priced natural gas to compete with oil. That means any commercial plant must be built abroad where gas is much cheaper. </P>
<P>Syntroleum and others are making progress on plans to build GTL plants in other countries. </P>
<P>Most of the world's gas reserves are in remote areas where there are no pipelines to ship the gas to market. In many parts of the world, the gas is discarded -- burned off in a process known as flaring. Using the Syntroleum process, producers could convert that gas into a marketable product such as diesel fuel. </P>
<P>The Syntroleum process also can be applied to coal, an abundant domestic source of energy. The cost of producing liquid fuel from coal is now competitive with the cost of refining it from oil because of higher oil prices and new incentives for coal gasification plants, Syntroleum said. </P>
<P>The Department of Energy helped fund the construction of Syntroleum's plant at the Tulsa Port of Catoosa. </P>
<P>The plant was built to test the production and use of synthetic fuel made from natural gas. The fuel has already been tested in city buses in Washington, D.C., and in vehicles at Alaska's Denali National Park. </P>
<P>Those test results were successful, said William Lawson, director of the DOE's Strategic Center for Natural Gas and Oil. </P>
<P>"Syntroleum is bringing exciting technology to convert stranded gas into clean, transportable distillate fuels," Lawson said. "It further diversifies potential sources of transportation fuel by converting uneconomical, remote gas resources into valuable fuel." </P>
<P>Synthetic fuels made from the Syntroleum process contain virtually no sulfur. </P>
<P>Syntroleum was founded in 1984 on a concept that would be successful under high oil prices. </P>
<P>"The company was born right here in Tulsa in a little shed in my backyard, where I began developing the technology more than 20 years ago," Agee said. "The time to showcase our ultra-clean fuel is now." </P>
<P>If oil prices continue to rise, as many analysts expect, the appeal of Syntroleum's process is expected to grow. </P>
<P>"Syntroleum is a great success story," Sullivan said. "I think Syntroleum's best days are yet to come." </P>
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<P><B>Russell Ray 581-8380 </B><BR><A href="http://by106fd.bay106.hotmail.msn.com/cgi-bin/compose?mailto=1&msg=75B5CC8D-8D2E-43F0-A0A7-F6422C2A8919&start=0&len=54447&src=&type=x&to=russell.ray@tulsaworld.com&cc=&bcc=&subject=&body=&curmbox=00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000001&a=cdae127b156e985e494277a9b4a16b06186830641c049a3978eceac0e641e334"><FONT color=#435059>russell.ray@tulsaworld.com</FONT></A> </P>
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<P><SPAN class=twtopstory><FONT color=#4f626d size=2>Related Photos & Graphics</FONT></SPAN></P>
<P><FONT color=#4f626d size=2><IMG src="http://www.tulsaworld.com/images/2005/050824_E1_Going26242_e1bus24.jpg"></FONT> </P>
<P><STRONG><FONT size=2><SPAN class=twnav-bold>Syntroleum Corp. has agreed to supply the Metropolitan Tulsa Transit Authority with synthetic diesel for one bus for a year. Officials attending Tuesday's announcement are (from left) Bill Cartwright, general manager of Tulsa Transit; Kenneth Agee, chairman of Syntroleum; Tulsa Mayor Bill LaFortune; and Ken Roberts, senior vice president of business development with Syntroleum.</SPAN><BR></FONT><SPAN class=twphotocaption><EM><FONT face="Times New Roman" color=#525252 size=1>ROBERT S. CROSS / Tulsa World</FONT></EM></SPAN></STRONG></P>
<P><STRONG><EM><FONT face="Times New Roman" color=#525252 size=1><IMG src="http://www.tulsaworld.com/images/2005/050824_E1_Going26242_e2sully24.jpg"></FONT></EM></STRONG> </P>
<P><STRONG><FONT size=2><SPAN class=twnav-bold>U.S. Rep. John Sullivan speaks Tuesday during a press conference where it was announced that Tulsa-based Syntroleum Corp. will provide gas-to-liquids diesel fuel for one Tulsa Transit bus for a year.</SPAN><BR></FONT><SPAN class=twphotocaption><EM><FONT face="Times New Roman" color=#525252 size=1>ROBERT S. CROSS / Tulsa </FONT></EM></SPAN></STRONG><BR><BR></P>
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From: <I>"Seneca Scott" <chiefseneca@hotmail.com></I><BR>To: <I>chiefseneca@hotmail.com</I><BR>Date: <I>Thu, 18 Aug 2005 21:58:47 -0500</I><BR><BR>
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<TD><STRONG><SPAN class=storyheadline><FONT face=Arial size=4>OKanola: The new kid on the crop block <BR><BR></FONT></SPAN><FONT size=1><SPAN id=article_author>Oklahoman Editorial 8-12-05</SPAN><BR></FONT></STRONG><SPAN class=storytext><FONT face=Arial size=2>No one's betting the farm on it, but the newest cash crop in Oklahoma has the potential to become huge. The commodity is canola, which is used to make edible oil and biodiesel fuels. </FONT>
<P>Canola is a staple in the fields of Canada and the northern tier of the United States. It's never been a big deal in Oklahoma. That may change if demonstration projects yield good results.
<P>The Oklahoma Farm Bureau reports canola was planted at 69 sites on more than 10,000 acres this year. Crop specialists say it's an ideal commodity to rotate with wheat. Like winter wheat, canola is planted in the fall and harvested in the spring.
<P>Another plus: Canola allows farmers to use herbicides that would harm wheat. Wheat is a grass and fields attract other types of grasses. Killing those invaders with chemicals threatens wheat as well. Thus, in rotation years, wheat yields might increase because of weeds killed in the previous growing season when land was planted in canola.
<P>Unlike with wheat, the state isn't set up to handle its canola harvest. This means it must be shipped to points such as North Dakota for processing into food oil or Colorado for blending with motor fuels. Farmer Scott Neufield of Fairview told the Farm Bureau's "Oklahoma Country" magazine that through growth in production and help from state government, canola crushing facilities could be built here.
<P>Varieties of canola suitable for this region are being developed and tested. The project, dubbed "OKanola," involves Oklahoma State University, Monsanto and interested farmers. Monsanto's Michael Marlow told the Farm Bureau magazine that the state is ripe for an alternative winter crop: "With canola, we can break disease and weed cycles ... it's great for biodiesel; it's great on your salad; it's a very healthy oil."
<P>Drawbacks include a lack of resilience if harvest is delayed by weather and the ability of canola to sustain cattle grazing. It's too soon to conclude that canola offers a field of dreams, but optimism for the crop is growing.
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<P> <STRONG><FONT size=6><SPAN class=twstorytextheadline>Ethanol fueling debate </SPAN><BR></FONT></STRONG><FONT size=1><SPAN class=twstorysynop>By RUSSELL RAY World Staff Writer </SPAN><BR><SPAN class=twstorysynop>8/21/2005 </SPAN><BR><BR></FONT><A href="javascript:ol('http://www.tulsaworld.com/TWPDFs/2005/Final/W_082105_E_1.PDF');"><FONT color=#435059><SPAN class=twstorysynop><FONT size=1>View in Print (PDF) Format</FONT></SPAN> </FONT></A><BR><SPAN class=twstorytext><BR>
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<H3>Backers see alternative energy; others remain skeptical </H3>
<P>Ronal McMurtrey is a third-generation farmer who has sometimes struggled to eke out a decent profit from his 3,000-acre spread west of Cherokee.
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<P>But McMurtrey is hopeful that he and other farmers will see higher incomes after a $60 million ethanol plant is built nearby in north central Oklahoma. </P>
<P>The facility, a project of the Oklahoma Farmers Union Sustainable Energy Board, will be the state's first ethanol plant. It's expected to create a more lucrative market for milo growers such as McMurtrey. </P>
<P>"We should realize 15 to 20 cents more per bushel," he said. </P>
<P>For McMurtrey, that's roughly $15,000 more a year. </P>
<P>And there is talk of building more ethanol plants in the state. It could be the beginning of a whole new energy industry in Oklahoma, a state with a rich history in oil and natural gas. </P>
<P>The plant in north central Oklahoma is "almost a done deal," said Terry Detrick, vice president of the Oklahoma Farmers Union. The exact site will be announced in a few weeks, he said. </P>
<P>"If we can get this one up and running successfully, I assume we'll turn right around and look at another one," Detrick said. </P>
<P>Ethanol has made great progress as an alternative fuel, and more states are taking a hard look at ethanol investments now that record high gasoline prices are squeezing consumers. </P>
<P>Ethanol production in the United States has more than doubled since 2000 and will continue to grow. There are 90 ethanol plants nationwide, up from about 70 in 2003, and 15 more plants are under construction, according to the Renewable Fuels Association. </P>
<P>The rising demand for ethanol is undoubtedly a financial boon for farmers, who can make more money by selling their grain as feedstock for fuel than as food for animals and humans. </P>
<P>But even as refiners prepare to increase the use of ethanol in gasoline, the debate over its use as an alternative fuel has intensified. </P>
<P>Proponents of ethanol say increasing its use will lower gasoline prices, reduce oil imports and cut air pollution. </P>
<P>Ethanol's critics contend just the opposite, arguing that it will raise pump prices and increase oil imports because the amount of energy required to make ethanol exceeds the amount of energy it provides as a fuel. </P>
<P>In addition, the ethanol industry is heavily subsidized, receiving more than $3 billion in government money each year. That means taxpayers bear much of the cost of ethanol production. Without those subsidies, ethanol could not compete with gasoline. </P>
<P>Ethanol is an additive that has long been blended with gasoline to reduce tailpipe emissions and improve fuel efficiency. Ethanol's most common feedstock is corn, but it can also be made from milo and barley. </P>
<P>The use of ethanol surged after several states banned the use of methyl tertiary butyl ether, a gasoline additive suspected of polluting groundwater. </P>
<P>The ethanol industry was given another huge boost earlier this month when President Bush signed the Energy Policy Act of 2005. The law will nearly double the use of ethanol in gasoline to 7.5 billion gallons a year by 2012. In addition, it extends a 10-cent per gallon tax credit to larger ethanol plants. The credit is capped at $1.5 million per year per plant. </P>
<P>An ethanol plant in Oklahoma would receive another 20-cent per gallon tax credit, an incentive recently approved by the Legislature. </P>
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<H3>A waste of energy? </H3>
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<P>A recent study by Cornell University's David Pimentel and the University of California-Berkeley's Ted Patzek concluded that the making of ethanol burns 29 percent more energy than it produces as a fuel. </P>
<P>"We've tried to be as comprehensive and accurate as possible," said Pimentel, a professor of agricultural sciences. </P>
<P>Their findings have outraged ethanol's biggest supporters, who say studies by the U.S. Department of Agriculture show that ethanol creates a surplus of energy, not a deficit. </P>
<P>But the USDA ignores a number of energy inputs required to make ethanol, Pimentel said. </P>
<P>"For example, they leave out all the energy for the production and maintenance of the machinery," he said. "How many farmers have you seen raising corn by hand? </P>
<P>"If we left out as many inputs as they did, I'm sure that we could achieve a positive return." </P>
<P>But Detrick said the professors' study is skewed because it greatly overestimates the use of machinery such as tractors in the production of corn, milo and barley. </P>
<P>"The tractor is used for multiple things," he said. "In their study, they used 100 percent of the cost of that tractor against the production of ethanol." </P>
<P>Many other studies show that ethanol produces more energy than it consumes, Detrick said. </P>
<P>"For every one Btu (British thermal unit) we put into ethanol, we get from 1.4 to 1.7 Btus back," he said. </P>
<P>Because of record high gasoline prices, more motorists are turning to a unique blend of gasoline known as E85. It's 85 percent ethanol and 15 percent gasoline, and it's about 45 cents cheaper than regular unleaded gas. There are two places in Oklahoma to get E85 fuel, both in Oklahoma City. </P>
<P>But there's a drawback. Although E85 is cheaper, it contains just two-thirds the energy of gasoline. That means motorists using E85 can't go as far as they could if they were using regular fuel. As a result, they have to buy more E85 fuel. </P>
<P>"In terms of the number of gallons pumped through the engine, it's going to be higher," said Christi Patton, associate professor of chemical engineering at the University of Tulsa. "That's why petroleum products have been so wonderful over the years. They're an incredibly dense source of energy." </P>
<P>In addition, E85 only works in "flexible-fuel" vehicles. There are 4 million such vehicles on the road today, including 8,900 in the Tulsa area, said Yvonne Anderson, the Clean Cities program director for the Association of Central Oklahoma Governments. </P>
<P>Using E85 in a car not equipped to handle large amounts of ethanol will harm the engine, Anderson said. </P>
<P>"Ethanol in high concentrations is corrosive," she said. "Eventually, you're going to have some problems." </P>
<P>E10 fuel -- a blend of 10 percent ethanol and 90 percent gasoline -- works "quite successfully" in any vehicle that uses gasoline and is about 10 cents cheaper than regular unleaded, Anderson said. </P>
<P>The benefits of ethanol outweigh the drawbacks, Patton said. </P>
<P>"The fuel is cheaper and it's from a renewable source, so you're winning," she said. "I think it's really great for the environment." </P>
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<H3>A great investment </H3>
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<P>About half of the nation's ethanol capacity is owned by cooperatives consisting of farmers and other investors. The return on their investment has been significant, Detrick said. </P>
<P>"There are plants this year that are returning more than 50 percent on their investment," he said. </P>
<P>The 50 million-gallon-a-year ethanol plant planned for north central Oklahoma, which will be owned by farmers and other investors, is almost certain to be profitable, Detrick said. </P>
<P>"We've looked at this thing under the worse-case scenario and still haven't been able to make it lose money," he said. </P>
<P>For farmers struggling with higher fuel costs, an investment in ethanol could be fruitful. </P>
<P>"What better way for a producer to hedge against the increasing cost of fuel than to invest in a profitable energy-producing plant," Detrick said. "I'm not going to tell our people we're going to get you a 50 percent return. I will say there are plants today getting a 50 percent return." </P>
<P>McMurtrey, the farmer from north central Oklahoma, is ready to invest. He's expecting a generous result. </P>
<P>"We think the profits will be great," he said. "It's going to beat farming." </P>
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<P><B>Russell Ray 581-8380 </B><BR><A href="http://by106fd.bay106.hotmail.msn.com/cgi-bin/compose?mailto=1&msg=75B5CC8D-8D2E-43F0-A0A7-F6422C2A8919&start=0&len=54447&src=&type=x&to=russell.ray@tulsaworld.com&cc=&bcc=&subject=&body=&curmbox=00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000001&a=cdae127b156e985e494277a9b4a16b06186830641c049a3978eceac0e641e334"><FONT color=#435059>russell.ray@tulsaworld.com</FONT></A> </P>
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<P><SPAN class=twtopstory><FONT color=#4f626d size=2>Related Photos & Graphics</FONT></SPAN></P>
<P><FONT color=#4f626d size=2><IMG src="http://www.tulsaworld.com/images/2005/050821_E1_Ethan5901_e2milo21.jpg"></FONT>
<P><STRONG><FONT size=2><SPAN class=twnav-bold>A head of milo stands in front of a John Deere combine on Ronal McMurtrey's family farm west of Cherokee in north central Oklahoma. Oklahoma Farmers Union officials say they hope an ethanol plant will be built in the area, which would be a boon for milo farmers such as McMurtrey.</SPAN><BR></FONT><SPAN class=twphotocaption><EM><FONT face="Times New Roman" color=#525252 size=1>ROBERT S. CROSS / Tulsa World</FONT></EM></SPAN></STRONG></P>
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<P><STRONG><FONT size=2><SPAN class=twnav-bold>Milo farmer Ronal McMurtrey of Cherokee says he expects the proposed ethanol plant near there to be profitable.</SPAN><BR></FONT><SPAN class=twphotocaption><EM><FONT face="Times New Roman" color=#525252 size=1>ROBERT S. CROSS / Tulsa World</FONT></EM></SPAN></STRONG></P>
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